Track times

[rock city racer]

I have a 22ft Best Track set up for tuning. It's all I have room for. I have not raced that much and have a lot to learn about tuning. My fastest times for street stock is around the 2.11's which equates to 2.95's on a 42ft Best Track. Every once in a while in the middle tuning I hit a 2.92 and the best Ive got was a 2.86 which would be competitive times on 42ft track.
When I get a good time I check the drift , do not change anything, run the car again and it's back to the 2.11's. What cause's this and why can't I maintain consistent times .

 

[OPARENNEN]

I do the same. In my case, it is always the staging. It can make a big difference. In fact, besides checking the drift, I now test various stagings, and have found out that different cars go better with different staging positions. e.g. my SR's reqire staging where front wheels are equadistant from the track vs. Unlim have DFW is 1/64 from track.

 

[Quicktimederby]

If you do not have a electric start gate that is where your differences are coming from. It would drive me crazy trying to true before the start gate. You can build a pretty good one for around 50-70 for everything.

 

[rock city racer]

Yea that makes sense as I have got better times out of certain cars by staging them different . So many variables, so little time. Thanks for the reply.

 

[Quicktimederby]

Staging on most cars can be a funny thing. For kicks and giggles last race there was some staging talk so we took my SS and staged it 4 different ways, the results were very interesting.

 

[E.T.Racing]

I totally agree staging will make a big difference in how your car runs. Good Luck!! Just one of the many mysteries of this crazy sport.

 

[zeebzob]

Staging is for sure a big part of it. And I totally agree that a solenoid start is a must. Once I got one, the times were a lot more consistant.
I am always looking for improvements to the start gate. See the post that Owens put up for the start gate mod with the little bearing. That is a great idea. Also, shorten the pins. With the cars we run, there is no reason for them to be so long. Many times they have bounced back up and hit the bottom of the car as it went by. You could actually see the car suddenly move to one side when that happened. Also, experiment with the foam that the gate hits when it opens. I feel that I finally got it so it stops the gate without slamming hard and does not have a lot of bounce.
I have just installed a bearing on the start lever instead of having it on a bolt. I just need a spacer, which I will pick up tomorrow to complete it. That should make it really smooth and also help with consistency. I will post pics soon.

 

[OPARENNEN]

Absolutely! If the gate does not have a SOFT stop, the sudden stop shakes the track enough to alter the times significantly.

 

[zeebzob]

OK, so here is the latest mod I did. I enlarged the pivot hole in the start lever to .625 and pressed bearing in it. Then mounted it to the track on a shoulder bolt. Does it help? Not sure yet, but it certainly doesn't hurt. I wanted to make this change after I noticed my unlimited cars slowing down for no reason. I found that the bolt had tighted up a little bit and it cause the lever to not return fully to the closed position. The pins were then not all the way back. It was almost unnoticable. But as soon as I loosened the bolt just a little bit, the time were right back where they were.

Also, here is the foam that I use to dampen the gate. Its a tubular style foam, it absorbs well and does not have too much bounce

 

[Skippy Kicky]

Thanks for sharing. That looks great!

 

[rock city racer]

I never would have thought about tuning my track ! Now I got another reason to hang out in the basement today . Great info Thanks.